Quotes
Earlier this week, the prime minister promised to ‘stand with Ukraine’. Now he’s serving notice on the support needed by the country’s children, who have been forced from their homes, seen their schools bombed and lived in fear for three years.”
A strong step from an enduring partner,
The UK’s influence in the world often comes through a combination of our hard power and our soft power, our diplomacy and our development funds. But priorities have to be established, and a priority that’s urgent now is spending more on defence,
Aid and defence are linked, but they build upon each other to keep everyone safe. Cutting one to fund the other will have dire consequences for us all as it will make the world less stable.”
Sarah Champion, the Labour chair of the international development committee, said I think in our heart of hearts, we’ve all known that this decision has been coming for three years since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine. The last few weeks have accelerated my thinking on when we needed to make this announcement,
The UK government’s decision to cut aid by £6bn in order to fund defence spending is a blow to Britain’s proud reputation as a global humanitarian and development leader. Today, an unprecedented 300 million people are in humanitarian need around the world. The global consequences of this decision will be far reaching and devastating for people who need more help not less.”
David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee, said Seeing a further decrease would have dramatic consequences on women and girls in low- and middle-income countries but also for societies and sustainable development as a whole because access to SRHR is a pre-condition for most development objectives related to health, education and economic growth.”
Lisa Goerlitz, head of DSW’s Brussels’ office, said Rather than rising to this challenge and offering emergency support, the UK is delivering another blow to health systems around the world. This shameful decision will leave the world less safe from infectious diseases and further hinder global efforts to combat health crises.”
The women leading their communities and defending their rights deserve not to be disproportionately impacted by the decisions of men, made in London,
Let me spell that out. [This] means spending £13.4billion more on defence every year from 2027.”
Sir Keir told the Commons I can announce this Government will begin the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War."
Speaking in the Commons, he said
